Airspaced photographic support



81 A. MURRAY 2,400,365

AIRS'PACEP PHOTOGRAPH-ICISUPPORT Filed Jan. 6, 1945 1 FIG. I.

I is PRIOR I 37 K 42 ART F|c;.- 2. 3a, I 41- Fl G.4. 50 6'0 /////////////////4:6J /ll x\\\\\\\ "65 R MURRAY INVENTOR BY WM ATTY & Ac?

ALEXANDE the picture anyway.

Patented May 14, 1946 UNITED/STATES PATENT. OFFICE AIRSPACED PHOTOGRAPHIC SUPPORT Alexander Murray, Rochester, N. Y., assignor to Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, N. Y., a corporation of New Jersey Application January 6, 1945, SerialNo. 571,661

Claims. (CL 95-8) This is a continuation in part of Serial Number 493,368, filed July 3, 1943.

This invention relates to photographic supports particularly to those to be used in color photography when making color prints.

It relates particularly to the airspaces supports described by Hanson and Evans in copending apment, the separation of the picture layer and the diffusing layer is very large, many times the total thickness of ordinary photographic papers so that the scattered light reduces the detail contrast, the sharpness, and the color saturation of the space.. Optical contact oreven thicknesses less than one or two wavelengths of light introducing interference patterns would not allow the invention to operate properly, but mechanical contact at scattered points, as with a rough or textured surface would still permit the operation of the present invention quite satisfactorily. The intermediate areas of course are separated more than one or two wave length of-light. Therefore the present invention requires the airspace (or other low index medium) to have a thickness greater than .00005 inch and since the separation picture giving a softened or "porcelain" appearance. Even in ordinary photographic prints in which the diffusing layer is attached to the picture layer, this effect is not present. For conven-- ience the scattering of light in the Bencke et al. arrangement may be referred to as primary halation" in which case it should be noted thatthe effect of primary halation in ordinary photographic prints is negligible since the spreading of light thereby is-less than the minimum detail of However, in ordinary color prints, there is what may be termed secondary halation due to multiple internal reflections within the picture layer. This secondary or residual halation is removed by the present invention. The present invention tween the image bearing layer and the light of the picture and difiusing layers is equal to or greater than the airspace, this is the lower limit of the'separation. Thus both the airspace and the separation of the picture and diffusing-layers must be between .00005 inchand .005 inch preferably less than .001 inch. v

Specifically the present invention relates to an improved support and method of producing such 'a support relative to that described in my copending application, Serial No. 571,662, filed concurrently herewith. The present invention involves a slightly more complicated structure since two or more airspace layers are provided, but it has-the advantage over my copending case that the airspace is effective over 100% of the picture area. According to the invention, this additional advantage of 100% effectiveness is gained in. the case of a photographic color print by having, be-

difiusing support, a thinptransparent pellicle on either side of which is an airspace, the contact i 7 between the pellicle and the image bearing layer being provided by one set of contact areas preferably of small diameter and covering less than V2 the total area and the contact between the I pellicle and the light diffusing support being prowould have -no value in any arrangement having an objectionable degree of primary halation. If

the separation of the picture and diffusing layers were made greater than lim of an inch, primary halation due to the Bencke effect would counter act the function of the present invention rendering it inoperative. Preferably this separation should be less than /1000 of an inch. Since the airspace must be equal to or less than this separation, these values also constitute thev upper limits of the airspace thickness. a

The airspace according to the present invention can have any thickness less than, that just specified but of course there must be some air vided by. another set of contacting areas out of register with the first-mentioned set and preferably with substantially no overlap of the contact areas. This means that there is at least one airspace between each point of the image bearing layer and the adjacent point of the light diffusing support. Various methods of obtaining this structure of each airspace separately are described in my concurrently flled' application mentioned above. The contact areas may be provided by adhesive spots or by relief areaswhich' may be on the pellicle itself, onthe image bearing layer, or On the light diffusing base. One preferred embodiment of the invention has {an arrangement of relief areas on a thinpellicle, two such pellicles being laminated facing in the same direction and a third pellicle without relief areas is cemented or otherwise attached to the tops of the exposed relief areas. The result is a threelayer laminated sheet with two substantially continuous airspaces, at least one such airspace occurring at every point of the sheets areas. The airspace sheet is then laminated between the picture bearing layer and the light diffusing support. A still more preferred embodiment has a single pellicle with out-of-register adhesive spots on both sides thereof which may be laminated directly or with additional interlayers between a transparent layer and a light diffusing layer. Such a sheet is also useful in anti-halation layers.

The invention, and the principle thereof, will be fully understood from the following description when read in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figs. 1 and 2 illustrate the theory of the airspaced support;

Figs. 3 to 6 are enlarged cross sections of various embodiments of the present invention;

Fig. 7 illustrates the making of a universally useable pellicle according to the invention and the lamination of this pellicle between an image hearing layer and its support.

In-Fig. 1 an image bearing layer 18 is separated by an airspace H from a light diifusing support such as paper or film containing a translucent pigment. For simplification this support is represented by a transparent layer l2 and a trans- I lucent layer l3, the diffusion being assumed to take place at the interface l4 Of course, the layer l2 may be infinitesimal in thickness or the light diffusion may be distributed throughout the support.

Light represented ing surface l4 at the point I! and is diffused. Part of this light as represented by the ray l8passes back through the color layer Ill. Light diffused at high obliquity such as indicated by the rays l8 may be totally and internally reflected within the layer l2 and strike the diffusing surface l4 again at the point 2|. A ray 28 may also strike this point 2| directly and, of course, is much more intense than the ray l8. However, light from the point 2| is made up of two parts the'major portion of which came from the ray 28. Part of this as shown by the ray 22 passes to the eye 23 of an observer who at the moment is examining a portion of the image in a layer l8 adjacent to the point 2|. This ray 22 will be mainly colored by the portion of the layer Ill near the. point 2| because the extraneous ray I8 is not highly colored since it passed through the layer I8 only once and then practically directly through as indicated by the portion l 6.

However, according to the prior art as shown in Fig. 2 an extraneous light striking the point 86 is diffused to send a ray 31 directly back and a highly oblique ray 38 passes, as shown by the portions 38, obliquely and hence, through a thick portion of the color layer 30 before it strikes a second point of diffusion 4|. Although this ray 88 forms only a small portion of the light in the ray 42 compared with the primar illuminatin ray 48 this extraneous ray 88 may be highly colored and cause highlight stain it the region of the image 38 adjacent to the point 4| happens to be a highlight. Thus, the airspace H of Fig. 1 increases the brilliance and decreases the highlight stains of a color print. This is all described by Hanson and Evans in the above-mentioned application.

In Fig. 3 an image bearing layer 50 is attached to a pellicle 5| by adhesive spots 58 so that an airspace 54 covering over 50% of the total area is provided. This pellicle 5! is laminated to a light diffusing support 52 by means of a similar array or set of adhesive spots 55 thus providing another airspace 58. The array or set of spots 53 are out of register with the array or set of spots 55 and preferably do not overlap the spots, at least by any substantial amount. This means that there is at least one airspace under every point in the layer of the image 58.

In Fig. 4 the image bearing layer 68 is separated from the light diffusing support 84 by three transparent pellicles BI, 62, and 53 and two airspaces 65 having contact areas out of register and not overlapping.

Either of these embodiments are useful in antihalation films in which case the top layer (58 or 60) is an emulsion layer and is light difiusing and the base (52 or 68-44) is the transparent layer.

A similar arrangement is provided in Fig. 5

in which the image bearing layer H3 is separated from and fastened to the light difiusing base '68 by three pellicles H, 14 and 15 laminated together. The pellicle H is provided with relief areas 12 providing airspaces l8 and the pellicle I5 is provided with similar relief areas 18 provided with airspaces 11. The tops of these relief areas in both cases are attached to the intermediate pellicle 14, the relief areas being out of register and not overlapping.

A similar arrangement is ,shown in Fig. 6 in which the picture layer 88 and light difiusing layer 88 are laminated with an intermediate layer by a ray l5 strikes the diifusmade up of three pellicles 8|, 82, and 84. Pellicles 82 and 84 are identical having relief areas 83 and 85 respectively on the top areas thereof. These relief areas are out of register and the three pellicles are attached to each other only by the tops of the two sheets of relief areas.

Such supports are produced, a in Fig. for example, by means of steel engraved rolls 80. A

continuous web of transparent stock or pellicle 84 may be treated to have adhesive stops 85 on both sides. This is done by intaglio printing with rolls 88 having wells 88 which pick up adhesive 8 l the drums being wiped by brushes 82. .The adhesive used in dry mounting tissue is satisfactory.

the ultimate lamination being by heat under pressure. The pellicle 84 with spots 85 may then be used for direct lamination of a picture bearing layer and a light diffusing support or a film base to a pellicle later to be coated with sensitive emulsion or thirdly may be used as shown in Fig. 7 between two pellicles 6| and 88 to make the material shown in Fig. 4, pellicle 84 becoming interlayer 62 and adhesive 85 becoming contact areas 58. The two rolls which need not match precisely in diameter, are identically engraved or etched in a circumferential direction with parallel series of lines in relief. To allow for spreading the lines are narrower than the spaces for example, in a 40:60 ratio. The rolls 80 are adjusted so that the lines of one roll register with the space of the other roll, 1. e. are out of line with the other roll. A thin'pellicle sheet 84 of cellulosic derivative orthe likeis passed in sheet or web form between the rolls to provide the relief areas, for example, by applying adhesive or cement on both sides of the pellicle 84 simultaneously. The printing areas of anyform of printing roll may be similarly inked with a. colorless transparent adhesive composition.

One embodiment of the invention employs a thermoplastic cement and the resulting pellicle su1tsina100% the areas between the other pair, with tially no overlapping of the contact areas.

of the two intervening airspaces having a thickis used in exactly the same manner as dry mounting sheets. The pellicle is sandwiched between a color transparency or a color sensitive emulsion and a white reflecting support such as paper.

- The contact areas can be almost identical in width producing a 50% airspace above and a 50% airspace below the middle layer which reairspace backing while retaining 50% of cemented areas for support on both sides of the middle layer.

I refertouselines andaline screen 50 lines per inch giving a pattern which can be made exactly out of register on the two sides without much trouble and the resulting cement: ing includes therefore 100 abutting strips pe inch. which are for practical purposes invisible to the naked eye.

' In each of the figures the arallel to the front surface of the picture layer and non-diifuslng. If this interface were diffusing as it probably is in the Bencke arrangement referred to above, the primary halation would be extended and also there would no longer be complete elimination of the secondary halation as by the present invention.

Having thus described the preferred embodiments of my invention, I wish to point out that it is not limited to these structures but is of the scope of the, appended claims.

, I claim: 1. A photographic color. print comprising a layer containing a multicolor picture, a light diffusing supp rt for the picture layer and between the support and the, picture layer a transparent pellicle and two airspaces one on each side of the pellicle with one set of occasional contact areasbetween the peliicle and the picture layer and another set of such areas out of register with the first set and between the pellicle and the support, the picture layer and the light diffusing support being separated by less than .005 inch and each of the airspaces having a non-diffusing front interface and a thickness greater than .00005inch.

2. A photographic color print according to claim 1 in which there is substantially no overlapping of the contact areas of the two sets.

3. A thin supporting layer for photographic records comprising three transparent smooth surfaced pellicles attached to each other only at distributed areas of contact, the areas between one pair of pellicles being out of register with substaneach ness greater than .00005 inch and the total thickfront interface of the low index or air layer is smooth, substantially ness of said layer being less than .005 inch, and

a light diffusing layer attached to the outside of one of the outer pellicles.

4. A thin supporting layer for a photographic record comprising a light diffusing layer, atransparent smooth. surfaced pellicle attached to the areas of contact and a. pellicle attachedtot hafirstonly atdlstributedareasof layer only at distributed second transparent smooth surfaced the first mentioned areas, each offthe two intervening airspaces having a thickness greaterthan .00005 inch and the total thickness of said layer being less than .005 inch.

5. A thin supporting layer for a photographic record comprising a light diffusing layer, a transparent smooth surfaced P 1 adhered o t layer only by elements of adhesive covering less With say andthe light dlflusing layer,

layer and the light'difiusing layer therebetween,

than V; of the total area and a second transparent smooth surfaced pellicle adhering to the first only by elements of adhesive out of register with and not overlapping the firstmentioned elements, each of the two intervening airspaces having a thickness greater than .00005 inch and the total thickness of said airspaces and pellicles being less .005 inch.

6. A thin supporting layer for a photographic record comprising a light diffusing layer the top surface of which has elemental areas in relief covering less than it of the total area, two transparent smooth surfaced pellicles, one adhering only to the top of said elemental areas and one having similar elemental areas outof register with and not overlapping tactalsoonly atthetopof theelemental areas. each of the two intervening airspacees having a thickness greater than .00005 inch and the total thickness of said airspaces and pellicles being less than .005 inch.

'7. A thin supporting layer for a photographic record comprising three smooth surfaced peliicle layers two of which have elemental areas in 1 relief covering less than it of the total area and being laminated with contacts only at the three the top of the elemental areas with airspaces the two sets of elemental areas being out ofregister and not substantially overlapping. each of the two intervening airspaces having 'a-thickness greater than .00005 inch and the total thickness of said-layer being less than .005 inch, and a light diffusinglayer attached to t'oclaim8in which arawd by less intervening airspaces 0. A material acco the transparent layer contains a mul picture dthe light diffusing layer is a support for the picture.

contactoutofregisterwithandnotoveliawnl' 'sionandthetranmtlayerisa 10. A material the light diffusing layer support for IURRAY.

the first mentioned elemental areas. the two pellicles being in conalight difand an intermediate smooth suraccording to claims in which containsasensitive emul- 

